Study: NYC's New Carbon-Cutting Goals To Cost Owners $20B Over Next 10 Years

New York City’s new laws aimed at reducing the city’s carbon emissions over the next two decades could cost landlords about $20B, according to new analysis.

In April, the City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act, which requires large and midsized buildings to cut emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. The worst-performing buildings have five years to bring their emissions down, and owners would face fines if they don’t comply.

Environmental think tank and advocacy group The Urban Green Council has run an analysis that pegs the cost to owners at between $16.6B and $24.3B over the next 10 years, Crain’s New York Business reports. 

"We believe the investment necessary will be somewhere in the middle, something closer to around $20B," Urban Green Council President John Mandyck told Crain's. "Local Law 97 is the largest disruption to the city's real estate industry in our lifetime … It's going to require an unprecedented amount of investment."

The group also expects 141,000 jobs — in industries like architecture and engineering — will be created as owners are forced to spend to make their buildings more efficient.

Around the time the city passed the new laws, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is planning on introducing further legislation, including taking on glass-and-steel structures — though no policies have been released.

“We are going to introduce legislation to ban the glass and steel skyscrapers that have contributed so much to global warming,” de Blasio said in late April. “They have no place in our city or on our Earth anymore.”